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Speaking out for the first time about the Pearson airport crisis, the chair of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority apologized, announced a board investigation of what went wrong that day and clarified that his embattled CEO was on a two-week vacation out west at the time of the city’s deep freeze.

This seems to contradict what CEO Howard Eng has previously stated about his whereabouts. Last week, Eng told the Star he was “on business” in Edmonton the week of the Pearson shutdown, which was preceded by a week with family.

But chair Vijay Kanwar said Wednesday that to his knowledge, Eng’s only business was attending an aviation conference “for a day or two.” Kanwar wasn’t sure when that conference occurred during the two-week span and he didn’t know the nature of the event. The Star has been unable to pin down any information about this conference.

To date, no disciplinary action has been taken against any airport staff. Kanwar said the board will be waiting for the results of its review —which will be released publicly — before making any decisions on that front.

Eng could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

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On Jan. 7, as temperatures plummeted to -25C and -40C with the wind chill, a full-blown “ground stop” was declared, halting all North American flights for more than eight hours and leaving thousands of travelers stranded for days.

“We are really sorry about the inconvenience faced by the passengers and we apologize for that and I can promise, going forward, we can and will do a better job,” Kanwar said.

But he was also clear that he doesn’t regret the decision to ground flights. It was the right call in order to ensure passenger and staff safety, he said. The chair does believe staff fell down when it came to communicating with customers.

“It's 2014. Everything goes on the smart phone now. Not the PA systems,” he said. “We should have been updating the website more quickly . . . that could have helped the situation.”

This was the only area Kanwar was willing to comment on before the board’s review is finished. Any other judgments would be premature, he said. “After the review is done and the findings are there, the actions, or improvements, will be taken at that time.”

The probe was announced on Wednesday. Five of the 15 GTAA board members will sit on an “ad hoc committee.” They will have 90 days to compile a list of recommendations, which will then be released to the public.

“They will be working with industry experts and have full access to any consultants or specialists from the outside to get to the bottom of what happened,” Kanwar said.

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“The review is going to go across the board. Whatever the people think might have been responsible — the review is going to cover everything. What caused the inconvenience that day? We want to look at the whole thing.”

Sitting on the five-member team are Danielle Waters, Terry Nord, Stephen Griggs, Kathy Milsom and Shaun Francis. Their areas of expertise range from governance to the aviation industry to business best practices.

The board’s investigation is separate from a review the GTAA announced after the shutdown — a review that the authority initially planned to keep secret. After the Starraised questions about whether the authority was being transparent, Eng announced they would release the findings.

“This is not a blaming exercise. It’s ‘Let’s outline what went wrong and how we can improve it,’” Eng said last week. “When we have that debrief, it’s got to be no holds barred, bring it up, tell us what we can do better.”

By comparison, the board’s review will have more teeth.

One area that will certainly be looked at is Eng’s performance. Kanwar said the CEO was in constant communication with staff and the board back at Pearson. But publicly, he was silent for two days. In 2012, Eng made $712,138 including incentives.

Both Eng and his office have refused to clarify what he was doing the second week of January.

Heather Hamilton, the director of communications with the Edmonton Regional Airports Authority, said he had a scheduled meeting with her CEO on the Thursday, but it was cancelled so that Eng could return to Toronto.

As for an aviation conference, “I have no idea what he’s referring to. You’d have to talk to his office.”

On Wednesday night, WestJet announced it welcomes the GTAA review.

“We look forward to participating in the process,” said Fred Cleveland, WestJet's Executive Vice-President of Operations. “Improving guest experience, regardless of the challenges faced in weather events, while ensuring the safety and well-being of our guests and our people is an opportunity we welcome wholeheartedly.”

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